A Good Checkup

Taking a moment to evaluate

“You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?” (Jesus, in Matthew 7:16).

Every year, like many of us, I get a medical checkup. I go to the doctor’s office and submit to a full examination. There are times when I go in enthusiastically, because I know that I have eaten fairly well, worked out fairly consistently, and have tried to maintain good sleep habits.

At other times, I feel a bit of dread.

Maybe I’ve put on a few pounds (I’ve noticed that now in my mid-fifties, I can’t just shed the pounds in a short amount of time, like I once did!). Maybe I have eaten “on the run” too often and have skipped walks or time at the gym. When this is the case, I know the results are going to tell on me! My body will bear the “fruit” of my actions leading up to my checkup (speaking of fruit, I probably need to eat more fruit!).

I have known the nurse and the doctor for over a decade, and they have been kind to me. When the doctor comes in, after the nurse has checked my vital signs and taken blood, and asks me the standard questions about my own self-care, I know that she already has an idea of the answer. It’s not because she possess some kind of psychic superpowers. It has something to do with the words of Jesus: When you see the fruit that is produced, you have an idea of what led up to that fruit (my paraphrase)! So, the doctor patiently says things like, “It looks like you’ve been busy lately. How are you getting back into the habit of self-care?” (I do my best to answer, even though what she really means is, “You need to get back into the habit of self-care!”). Or, she may say something like: “This change of weather can really affect our sleep patterns, so make sure you find ways to adjust to that” (Translation: “You should get more sleep to help you vitals!”).

My spiritual health can use this kind of evaluation, and so can the overall spiritual health of a nation.

If the policies put forth and the actions of a nation are causing an overall lack of confidence in the government or a consistent violation of the rights and dignity of I others, then a course correction is needed. If we are not living up to what our documents say we are about — items like civil rights and due process — then we need course correction.

The tough part of this kind of spiritual “checkup” for individuals and for nations, is that it is easy to get caught up in the day to day and neglect the bigger picture. Individually, when I get distracted by messages or calendar items that pull me away from physical and spiritual health, it shows up in ways that affect my blood pressure and my interactions with God and God’s people. Likewise, when a nation gets caught up in its crises, distractions, or one-sided agendas, the health of the nation suffers greatly.

Let’s pause and do a spiritual check-up from time to time. Perhaps we can start with the fruits of the Spirit that Paul writes about in Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, and self-control. If these essential elements of spiritual health are not consistently flowing from our lives, it is time to stop, reprioritize, and draw closer to the God we say we are trying to serve. Let’s take a national spiritual inventory as well: Are there areas where our nation and its leaders are compromising what the nation says we stand for? If so, then regardless of party lines, let us pray, speak out, and do our part to help the nation course-correct.